After graduating from the University of Genoa, he studied for the priesthood in the Collegio Capranica in Rome and entered the papal diplomatic service, later spending four years in Spain before being employed in the department of the secretary of state (1887). Pope Pius X made him archbishop of Bologna, (1907), and cardinal (1914). He was elected pope a month after the outbreak of World War I, and the greater part of his papacy was occupied with war problems.

Trying to follow a policy of strict neutrality, Benedict abstained from condemning any action of the belligerents. He concentrated the church’s efforts initially toward the alleviation of unnecessary suffering. Later he made positive efforts toward reestablishing peace, though hampered by the pro-Austrian sentiments of the majority of cardinals. When the United States entered the war and took up the Allies’ attitude that peace could not be restored to Europe until Germany had been defeated, his principal attempt to mediate (1917) failed.

By 1919 the papacy lacked the prestige it had enjoyed under Pope Leo XIII, and Benedict was excluded from the peace negotiations. His last years were concerned with readjusting the machinery of papal administration made necessary by the territorial changes that followed the war and with directives on missionary work. During this period official relations were resumed with France, and a British representative was accredited to the Vatican for the first time since the 17th century.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy Tikkanen, Corrections Manager.

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